Govt fooling masses with Kilinochchi victory - Ranil

Reduce fuel price by end of this month

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that the government should immediately provide relief to the masses by reducing the price of fuel. He demanded that before the end of the month the price of a litre of petrol should be reduced to Rs 100, litre of diesel to Rs 50 and kerosene by another Rs 5.

The government conveniently passed the burden on to the masses by using the war as an excuse and now it was boasting that the security forces had captured Kilinochchi, he said.

Wickremesinghe said that five months ago when the price of a metric ton of milk powder was USD 4500, the price of a 400 gram milk powder packet had been increased to Rs 275. But the when the price of a ton of Milk Powder was reduced to USD 1000, government had been in a position to bring down the price of packet of milk powder to Rs 160 but it had refused to grant that benefit to the masses, he said.